Friday, July 30, 2010

This picture comes from SRK user Denjetsu. To be honest, it feels like a fake, mainly because no one has even named the magazine it comes from. Also, the Silver Surfer just looks weird to me. The katakana is cut off at the beginning, but obviously says "Fantastic Four." I don't understand what the English in the circle to the right is doing there, though. Anyway, I'd be happy to be wrong on this one, because the Silver Surfer would make an interesting MvC3 character.

Valle and his crew have a new venue, a casino, for their Wed Night Fights training sessions. We need something like this on Long Island... but where? Anyway, there are a couple of great matches in the archive below.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada has been very active on Twitter in the last two hours or so, and he's responding to a bunch of fan questions. I've summarized some of the more interesting replies below, but you can check out @Harada_TEKKEN for the original context.

The lineup and its size [obviously] have not been determined yet.

He "has an idea" of how to make projectiles work in Tekken x SF.

Projectile characters will not have an advantage, due to sidestepping.

He never said he was working on Tekken 7, just the next Tekken project.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Fans are thrilled about the recent announcement of a new Tactics Ogre game for the PSP. Though the subtitle for the stateside release is the same as the original game, this is a new game, made in the image of the original and not a direct remake.

What's so great about this upcoming game? Well, it's actually being made by most of the core team that made the original, including Yasumi Matsuno. Let's take a look at Matsuno's directorial resume:

Ogre Battle

Tactics Ogre

Final Fantasy Tactics

Vagrant Story

Final Fantasy XII*

*This is where it gets interesting. Matsuno is actually the co-director of FFXII. He left midway through development citing health concerns. The rumor is that he actually had a mental breakdown of sorts, due to stress and major issues with the game's development. The new Tatics Ogre will be Matsuno's return to Square-Enix, although his role for the new Tactics Ogre is Planner and not Director. Here's hoping that he makes another amazing game.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Watch the madness as it went down: the Tekken producer crashes the Street Fighter panel at Comic-Con and hands out copies of Tekken 6! Sadly, the blaring Fuerte theme obscures some of the conversation. Harada is actually taunting Ono at that point, telling him that Street Fighter languished for ten years, between Third Strike and SF4. "What's up with that, Ono?"

The characters most likely to be included in Super Street Fighter 4, according to fan speculation, are Elena, Hugo, and Rolento. I've been trying to picture how these characters would play in SSF4, along with their Ultra and Super Combos.

Elena

Here's hoping that Elena's overhead attacks (F+MP, F+MK) retain the speed and range they have in 3S. I wouldn't want to see them be slowed down, and thereby rendered useless, like Ibuki's F+MK overhead. Her jumping target combos should be quite effective, much like Chun-Li's and Ibuki's. Her special moves all would translate nicely, though Lynx Tail (a breakdance-type, low-hitting move) could use some help.

She would probably have her Healing, but it couldn't be an Ultra. Ultras are gained by taking damage, and healing as a result wouldn't work too well. Healing would probably be her Super, which would be excellent. Having access to Healing regardless of Ultra choice would be amazing.

Ultra I would probably be Spinning Beat, which should have its uses, particularly as an anti-air. Ultra II would be my old favorite, Brave Dance. The problem is that Brave Dance was so good because it could be canceled from one of her best pokes, low MP. Without this cancel, it might be hard to actually catch someone with Brave Dance. I'm curious to see how Elena is able to land her Ultras.

Hugo

Some of Hugo's normals would be great in SF4. I could imagine his low jab, low MP, and standing MP being really effective. His special grabs would all be the same as always, but I'm curious to see how well his clap and clothesline moves would work.

I see Hugo having Hammer Frenzy as his Super. For some reason, it makes sense to me for him to have a choice of a grounded grab ultra and an air-grab ultra. Hammer Frenzy, an actual striking move, would then be his Super. Much like Elena, having access to this Super regardless of Ultra choice would be a huge boon for Hugo.

Ultra I would be Gigas Breaker, which would be functionally no different from T. Hawk's, Gief's, and Hakan's grab Ultras. Ultra II would be Megaton Press, his air grab. This could be very useful in SF4. If Hugo is able to use Ultra II as an opponent falls from focus crumple, it could be very valuable.

Rolento

The more I think about his style of play, the more I think he won't be in the game. His Patriot Circle (baton twirl move) has Rekka Ken inputs and would hit multiple times, ala Machine Gun Blow. His Mekong Delta rolling maneuvers would be like a quicker, backwards Abel roll, with potential follow-up attacks. He's got a wall bounce attack that's not unlike Fuerte's Picadillo Jump. His Stinger knife throw would be right at home in SF4, but could he still use his baton like Scrooge McDuck with D+MK?

His Super would probably be Steel Rain, where he throws knives into the air that rain down on the opponent. This would be his Super, because his other potential Supers would look so much better as more cinematic Ultras.

Ultra I would be his Take No Prisoner. This traditionally has to be blocked low, and involves a wire, a hook, and some of Rolento's cronies. Ultra II would be Mine Sweeper, which has Rolento roll backwards launching a series of mines that pull the opponent into the explosion. I really don't know how well these would work in the SF4 engine.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Welcome to "Turn the Tweet Back," a new feature wherein we discuss interesting Twitter activity by game-makers and other industry luminaries. Today, let's look at Yoshinori Ono (@Yoshi_OnoChin) and the lead-up to Saturday's big Street Fighter panel. Ono first talked about the Super SF4 arcade version's character select screen that was recently circulated. He brought attention to the two extra "black circles," but denied any knowledge of what they represented. He then went on to talk about his upcoming announcement:

I've been hearing of many rumors brewing up this week. Having said that, I have been tweeting to say I will announce something new.

I don't know if this 'something' is what the rumour says or what you had in mind.

I'm only sure of one thing. We will not disappoint.

I'm not only announcing one new 'something'

Nor just two.

But I would like to talk about a few of our recent endeavours.

You are free to record, video, photograph and everything else to capture this moment.

I hope that would help you all to discuss about it.

See you all at noon [Pacific] on Saturday, Room 25 ABC [at San Diego Comic-Con].

So, we're looking at at least three announcements! It's possible that Namco vs Capcom, Capcom vs Namco, and new SSF4 characters are these three, but could there be more? We're only about 24 hours away from finding out.

I'll be focusing my efforts on BlazBlue: CS come next week. The only character I ever played in the first one was Iron Tager, who is the absolute lowest on the tier list. He's slightly better in CS, so I'm looking forward to it. The game also has all sorts of training and challenge modes to get you up to speed with the varied characters. Maybe I'll actually try some different characters this time. For an idea of how Tager is played, see the video (from the original BlazBlue) below.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I just want to make something clear. Even if this Saturday's announcement is not Capcom vs Namco, CvN will be made. This I believe wholeheartedly. The rumors have become too ubiquitous to ignore. Long time fighting game fans will remember this exact situation leading to SNK vs Capcom (and CvS). The rumors became too loud to ignore, and the companies were basically forced to collaborate. If the rumors are not yet true, they will be. Trust me!

Sure, the Super SF4 finals were lots of fun, but I really had a blast at the Tatsunoko vs Capcom finals. The matches with the giant PTX-40A were somewhat boring; even Marn complained that they were a letdown for the fans. I thought they were still interesting, especially the psyching-out that was being done via air dashes in different directions.

The matches involving all regular characters, however, were super-exciting! For the Keits vs Justin Wong match, a bunch of people in the crowd wanted to bet on Keits, as did I. Nobody wanted to bet on Justin, so in the spirit of Vegas, I took a gamble and bet on Justin Wong... and Justin won!

The grand finals, featuring Marn vs KBeast, were intense. Seated just to my left was Tatsu (aka Tatsujinken), the best SF4 Vega in the States. He didn't know TvC too well, so I was explaining what little I knew to him, as well as getting extremely hyped. When KBeast selected Yatterman-2, I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to see him summon his robot helper. Whenever the robot super was activated, or the robot landed a hit, I went nuts! It was too much fun. KBeast got really close, even winning some of those later games, but Marn was just too strong. Though Marn's Zero is a known quantity at this point, seeing him beast with Alex (when Zero was KO'd) was a real treat. Although it doesn't totally capture the electricity in the room, you should check out the video below.

Rumors abound about Saturday's announcement. The prevailinig rumor is something I predicted a while back, Capcom vs Namco. Actually, the rumor is that there are two games in development: Capcom vs Namco, developed by Capcom, produced by Ono, and running on the SF4 engine; and Namco vs Capcom, developed by Namco, produced by Harada, and running on the Tekken 6 engine.

Having Capcom characters in a Tekken game might actually make me want to play it, as I've never been much of a 3D fighter fan. What Tekken characters do you want to see in the SF4 engine? What Street Fighters (or other Capcom characters) would you like to see in Tekken? I'm already imagining what they'd look like...

Friday, July 16, 2010

I had done a bit of drinking in Vegas before I first picked up Marvel vs Capcom 3. For the first few seconds of my first match, I had extreme trouble defending properly and landing any hits on my opponent. Within a short time, however, I completely got the hang of it. In fact, I'll take this opportunity to brag that I went on a seven- or eight-game win streak. I eventually lost to a little kid who was no more than ten years old, because I picked some characters that I'd never used before and took it easy on him... or at least that's what I tell myself.

Anyway, you can find all sorts of details about the game system on Shoryuken. I really liked the way that combos strung together fairly easily. The combo system is similar to Tastunoko vs Capcom, but I couldn't really get combos like A, c.A, B, c.B, C, c.C to work. I'm pretty sure I was just timing my inputs improperly. Launchers were a little finicky as well. Some characters seemed to consistently land launchers only after a sweep, while other characters could not do so. With more practice, I'm sure it will become clear as to what combos work consistently.

As for characters, my favorites were Felicia, Morrigan, and Hulk. Once I got over my constant urge to do Felicia's MvC2 "Sand Kick" super (which she doesn't have in this game), I started to do really well with her. She can chain into a sweep, then combo that into a multi-hit rushing super. Her launcher works really well after a sweep, as well. She has a super that summons a fellow catwoman who attacks randomly, like Yatterman-2's robot in TvC.

I found Morrigan's arcing dashes really useful and tricky, much like in TvC. Her jumping Exchange is her aerial multi-hit drill attack. She had a Level 3 Super that did a ton of damage and could even be comboed into in mid air.

Hulk had some nasty tricks. He could air combo into a final hit that would bounce the opponent off the ground. Hulk could then land and OTG with a Super. His standing C had super armor and canceled into his launcher, which could then be canceled into his falling rocks Super. Though he wasn't very mobile, he did some serious damage.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game and found the characters to all feel unique and fun. I had a bit of difficulty mounting an offense with the many characters that had no air dashes, but as Hulk showed, mobility was not totally necessary to be dangerous on offense. I'm actually hoping to see another slow/strong character and a true grappler in the game. There were some brutal grab-Super resets in TvC that might also work well here. Obviously, I'm really looking forward to this game, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for GGPO online code.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

First let me say that this list definitely differs from one some guy showed me at EVO, but not by much; I distinctly remember M. Bison being on his list. Regardless, people on the Internet supposedly found this list in the Flash code on the Japanese website, which has since been changed. Did it really happen? Is there any reason to trust this list? Probably not... but here it is anyway:

It seems like Ryu has been dominating most HD Remix tournaments since the game was released, while Zangief's been considered the absolute lowest on the tier list. Well, SnakeEyez and his super-potent Zangief had something to say about that at EVO this year. Check out the grand finals below to see how he pulled it off. Spoiler: It involves a lot of spinning and a hint of body massage.

My personal MVP of EVO 2010 is J.R. Rodriguez. He is known for being a Raging Demon specialist, even since the Third Strike days. J.R. had an amazing run this year and put both Tokido (a top Japanese Akuma player) and Flash Metorid into losers. Unsurprisingly, it took two Top 8 players to eliminate him; J.R. lost only to Mike Ross and GamerBee.

8:25 in this video is the most heartbreaking moment of the tournament and completely changed the results of the Top 8.

Want to try Kinect? Starting tomorrow, Macy's locations across the country will have playable demo stations. For my fellow New Yorkers, there will be setups at the Roosevelt Field and Herald Square stores. Road trip this weekend?

SF4 Producer Yoshinori Ono continues teasing his next game. At EVO, he made a joke about working on Dark Void 2. Later, he said he'd received a call from his boss, Keiji Inafune, that he would have to discontinue work on that to work on a fighting game instead. He urged fans to be patient until an announcement at Comic-Con in two weeks.

He offered a hint via a picture he posted to Twitter, seen here. Apparently, that's a picture of Ryu to the left; however, the inkblot to the right is still a mystery. Judging by how friendly Ono was with Tekken Producer Harada-san at EVO, could we see a Namco vs Capcom?